Perhaps someone has a recepi with wine instead of stout. although apparently guiness is teh secrte ingredient of some top chefs.

To Cook

Season the short ribs with salt and pepper, then place in flour until evenly coated. Shake off the excess flour. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook the ribs until browned on each side, about 5 minutes per side. Remove from the skillet and set aside. Add the onion and garlic to the skillet; cook and stir until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Return the ribs to the skillet and pour in the beer. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan, until all of the browned bits have mixed in with the liquid. Pour in the beef stock, cover and simmer over low heat until very tender, about 2 hours et voila!

The point of the flour on the outside of the ribs is to improve the texture; it makes it more crispy on the outside when fried. You could probably just omit the flour and fry it without that, if you don't mind the change in texture. OTOH, 1/4 cup of compliant flour (some of which is shaken off) isn't a whole lot of grains for 2 pounds of meat.

You could use red wine in place of the beer- it will have a slightly different flavor, but is still very tasty. I'd use 1/2 cup of red wine in place of 12 oz of beer, and add another cup of liquid to keep the volume consistent. In this recipe, that would mean 1 cup red wine and a total of 4 cups (1 quart) of beef stock, to replace the 24oz of beer and 2 cups of stock called for in the recipe.